Mick's GeekBlog

It’s the surreal thing

Posted by Mick on February 2, 2010 – 3:50 pm

Today’s entry will quite likely be very brief, for multiple reasons.

One of the bigger reasons is that I find it very difficult to type, much less have coherent thoughts, when I’m sneezing every 30 seconds. Austin is currently experiencing a few days of elevated mold count, which means Mick is currently experiencing elevated allergy symptoms, such as sneezing violently every 30 seconds.

Define sneezing violently? Certainly. I’m sneezing so hard that my face and chest muscles are sore. I’m sneezing so loud that I can be heard across our entire floor at work.

My allergies laughed at the Claritin I took this morning, so I decided to switch my defensive posture to an aggressive posture and hit it with a dose of Claritin D at lunch, thinking the pseudo-ephidrine might kick the hell out of the sneezes. So far, that’s been a dismal failure. The double dose of antihistamines hasn’t done much for my sneezing either, but it does make me a little loopy, so at least I’m kinda sorta having fun with the whole thing.

All of this will make my evening of standing outside in the near-rain (with a possibility of full on rain) ever so much more fun. At least it’s not as cold as it was yesterday, they say it will be in the low 50’s. I can stand the low 50’s. Unless it rains. Who am I kidding? I’ll stand it even if it does rain.

What could possibly get me to stand outside in the cold and wet even as I do battle with the forces of evil as personified by an army of miniscule mold spores infesting the very air that I must breathe to sustain my exisitence? Nothing less than a rare live Austin appearance by the masters of avant-garde rock, The Residents. If you’re not familiar with them, it’s probably better if you just read the Wikipedia entry on the band, as it’s far to complex for me to explain. In short, though, I’m going to see a band that has been performing 40 years while successfully concealing their identities. No one knows who they are. Like Batman. But with music and performance art instead of vigalante justice.

The current tour is entitled “Talking Light”. The concept behind Talking Light is explained on their website thusly:

The story of the Talking Light piece is basically that of an older man who questions, not only decisions he made as a teenager, but also if the events he remembers from that time happened at all. “A dead infant clutching a ring with an inscription the teenager cannot read” is the stuff of dreams. The following stories in the show may or may not shed light on the inscription. Questions remain unanswered. The Residents study death, not as a horrific end, but as the ultimate question that we all ask while wondering if any of it is even real.

Now that’s alternative. It also seems strangely appropriate to where I’m at on my own journey. And when push comes to shove, it’s an experience that I can’t pass up. The chance to see these legends of the bizarre do this thing that they do does not come along very often. I’m not going to miss this one.

To firther clarify how excited I am about this, I’m passing up the chance to see a 35mm print of Frankenstein vs Wolfman on the big screen tonight. I’m serious about this one.

Speaking of vigilante justice, am I the only one that’s really excited about the upcoming movie Kick-Ass? I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will be the best comic book adaptation ever. It’s an old story, but with a twist. There’s a teenage boy, he’s not popular, he doesn’t have many firends. So he decides to become a super hero. He doesn’t have super powers. he doesn’t even have any special training. He doesn’t even have a real reason. He just wants to do it, so he does. Which inspires some other people to do it. Other people includes Christopher Mintz-Plasse (the artist previously known as McLovin) and Nicolas “Bad Lieutenant” Cage. It’s time for a trailer fest, me-thinks.

This is the “official” trailer, sanitized for yourprotection.

And this is the newest trailer – the red-band trailer. This might have some language unsuitable for work, children, and small farm animals.

Does that look like fun? I think so. But I really want to see more of Hit-Girl and Big Daddy. Luckily, I can, because there’s yet another red-band trailer, with a bit more foul language, violence, and blood.

And that’s all you’re getting for today. I’ve got some last minute stuff to do at work, a final meeting (meet the new boss, same as the old boss, a quick change of clothes, and I’m off to get my surreal on.